ICYMI: NEW MEMO FROM OPPONENTS OF GOP TAX SCAM

Washington, D.C. — Following the Senate’s passage of Republicans’ Billionaire Tax Scam, Families Over Billionaires, CAP Action, Climate Power, End Citizens United, League of Conservation Voters, Navigator Research, and Protect Our Care released a new memo to allied officials, communicators, and advocates on next steps to ensure we continue winning the messaging battle. The memo emphasizes the importance of message discipline in advancing a cost-focused case against this cruel, harmful legislation.

Simply put: Everyday, hard-working Americans don’t want to see their costs go up to fund more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, especially when so many are already struggling to make ends meet. Republicans have betrayed their constituents by raising costs on them to deliver for their billionaire donors, and we must ensure the American people know it by continuing to amplify a simple, cost-focused argument about Republicans’ Billionaire Tax Scam. We’re winning this fight in the court of public opinion, and we will keep fighting to ensure the Republicans who supported this bill are held accountable.

The full memo is available here and below.  

Key Excerpts: 

• “This fight will soon enter a crucial time for public opinion. The next few days and weeks are when public opposition to the bill and its supporters will be cemented. Americans know this bill will raise the cost of living to provide an indefensible giveaway to the wealthy and well-connected. By aligning to this one story across a diverse set of issues we will reach Americans who consume news passively with a simple, compelling story. This story will help voters make sense of this bill and the priorities of the Republican majority in Washington.”

• “To continue winning the battle for public opinion, communicators must push forward a consistent, simple, overarching attack on the “Big Beautiful Bill”. The framework for that attack has been laid, and is already overwhelmingly winning the public debate: this bill raises costs on everyday Americans at the worst time, while bestowing more tax giveaways to wealthy donors and corporations.”

• “Current research across issue areas and from different perspectives suggests the most effective approach to increasing opposition to the bill is to leverage concerns over rising costs. This is the context for our attack. Now, as the bill approaches potential final passage and receives more attention from the media and public, we must double-down on this winning strategy through focused and repetitive messaging on what Americans have to lose.”

• “Public opinion on the GOP Tax Scam is tanking. In order to continue this success and breakthrough to the vast majority of remaining Americans who can be persuaded against the bill, now is the time to tell the stories of Americans who will be impacted while maintaining a relentlessly simple message.”

Full Memo:

To: Allied officials, communicators and advocates

From: CAP Action, Climate Power, End Citizens United, Families Over Billionaires, League of Conservation Voters, Navigator Research, and Protect Our Care

Date: July 1, 2025

Subject: Advancing Our Winning, Cost-Focused Case Against the “Big Beautiful Bill”

This morning, Washington Republicans took another step in rushing through their “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will be a real disaster for the American people – and a political disaster for the Republican majority.

Republican Senators advanced the bill in the face of overwhelming public opposition. Advocates and leaders who oppose the plan have succeeded in negatively branding the bill with a majority of voters. Americans do not support tax breaks for the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of health care and higher costs. The bill is incredibly unpopular. By some accounts it is polling even worse than the Trump tax cuts or ACA repeal in 2017 – and a majority of Americans have heard about the bill.

This fight will soon enter a crucial time for public opinion. The next few days and weeks are when public opposition to the bill and its supporters will be cemented. Americans know this bill will raise the cost of living to provide an indefensible giveaway to the wealthy and well-connected. By aligning to this one story across a diverse set of issues we will reach Americans who consume news passively with a simple, compelling story. This story will help voters make sense of this bill and the priorities of the Republican majority in Washington.

To continue winning the battle for public opinion, communicators must push forward a consistent, simple, overarching attack on the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The framework for that attack has been laid, and is already overwhelmingly winning the public debate: this bill raises costs on everyday Americans at the worst time, while bestowing more tax giveaways to wealthy donors and corporations.

Current research across issue areas and from different perspectives suggests the most effective approach to increasing opposition to the bill is to leverage concerns over rising costs. This is the context for our attack. Now, as the bill approaches potential final passage and receives more attention from the media and public, we must double-down on this winning strategy through focused and repetitive messaging on what Americans have to lose. The winning formula contrasts loss aversion against tax breaks for the rich in the context of high prices: 

• In plain English:
  • “[NAMES] rely on [Medicaid] to afford [care for their disabled son, NAME]. Without it, their family would be crushed by having to pay [$600 a month]. They’re not alone. 17 million Americans will lose healthcare because of the Republican bill, and costs will go up on utility bills, on groceries, and for private insurance at a time Americans can least afford it. The Republican bill makes all of us pay more for health care, all to give the rich a tax break.”
    
  • “For Americans like [NAME, a senior who relies on food assistance to eat and get by], this bill raises costs at the worst time. By hiking up utility bills for everyone and gutting SNAP, we all pay more. And people like [NAME], on fixed incomes, will have to choose between going hungry or heating their home just so Republicans can give their backers a tax break.”

• Loss aversion grounded in the context of high costs is more effective than arguments centered on specific policies or harms. With this bill, Republicans are taking away the basics at a time when Americans can least afford it to reward wealthy donors. This is not a moment to educate the public about a wealth transfer or the big numbers. Our story is about Americans losing health care and paying higher insurance rates. It is a story about families paying more expensive groceries and electric bills. It is a story about new tariffs we pay on everyday goods. It is about all of these costs going up for the American people while the wealthy and well-connected get tax breaks.

As an entire movement opposed to this Big Betrayal, we will do two things.

1. We will continue expanding the reach of our message. The more Americans hear about the bill, the more they hate it. When voters hear the basic components of the bill, delivered with neutral framing, opposition grows. Among voters who have heard a lot about the bill, only 38 percent support it and 60 percent oppose – 50 percent strongly oppose the bill. The number of Americans who have heard about the bill has increased markedly in the last month. The next few weeks will be a key moment to reach Americans who avoid the news and are, by-and-large, predisposed to opposing the bill.
   
2. We will tell ONE BIG STORY across many mediums to break through in today’s information environment. That story will be how Republicans in Washington are raising costs on the American people at the worst time to give their billionaire donors and giant corporations tax breaks and handouts. Advocates should use first-person testimonials from Americans who will be impacted by unaffordable health care, groceries and energy, within this frame.

With proper agenda setting, advocates across issue areas will power ONE STORY that Americans will hear loud and clear — further driving broad opposition to this bill and its supporters. These findings have been shown in research by a variety of groups with different policy goals and perspectives, including Families Over Billionaires, Protect Our Care, Climate Power, End Citizens United, Navigator Research, Blue Rose Research and CAP Action.

While we must continue to center a cost-focused attack on the bill, various proof points within that argument can all be successful. Advocates and communicators in this space can feel comfortable emphasizing various portions of the cost impacts whether they are in health care, energy, education or food. All of these topics fit within the winning frame of raising costs on working class families to give tax breaks to the wealthy and well-connected. 

Public opinion on the GOP Tax Scam is tanking. In order to continue this success and breakthrough to the vast majority of remaining Americans who can be persuaded against the bill, now is the time to tell the stories of Americans who will be impacted while maintaining a relentlessly simple message. 

A brief review of recent research that shows the importance of a cost-focused message:

• Americans are already feeling the burden of higher costs thanks to Trump’s tariffs and lack of attention to the affordability crisis, particularly in respect to groceries.
  • A majority of Americans believe the cost of groceries has increased over the past year, with 80% of seniors having this view on a variety of foods [Ipsos Poll, 3/25]
  • 61% believe the cost of living is on the wrong track [Ipsos Poll, 4/25]
  • “Of the five economic concerns we asked about in April, food and consumer goods prices topped the list for Americans” [Pew, 5/25]
     
• Americans already believethat the reconciliation bill would raise costs while unfairly benefiting the rich. [Navigator, 6/17/25]
  • 57% are concerned about the bill benefiting the wealthy and bringing up costs for middle and working class people.

• The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) is unpopular with a clear majority of voters and is in worse shape than the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was when it passed.
  • Navigator found 51 percent of Americans oppose the Republican budget plan following its passage in the House. Opposition outweighed support by 15 points in mid June, with just 36 percent supporting the GOP budget bill. Opposition to the bill has increased six points since May and has grown the most among independents. [Navigator, 6/17/25]
  • Quinnipiac found the bill 26 points underwater. 53 percent of all respondents oppose the reconciliation bill. Democrats are unified in their opposition. Only 67 percent of Republicans support the bill; a clear majority of 57 percent of unaffiliated voters oppose the measure  [Quinnipiac, 6/11/25]
  • A FOX News poll similarly found only 38 percent of voters support the measure, and 60 percent say they understand the bill [FOX News, 6/16/25]
  • The bill is incredibly unpopular, polling worse than or similar to both the 2017 Trump tax cuts and the 2017 ACA repeal bill, which sank Republicans’ last majority:
    • The BBB’s unpopularity is comparable to Republicans’ efforts to repeal the ACA in 2017. According to a KFF poll from May 2017, voters disapproved of it 55% – 30%.
    • TCJA was 21 points underwater according to Monmouth when the law was passed in December 2017. This month Quinnipiac found the BBB 26 points underwater.
    • These surveys indicated more Americans have an opinion about the BBB this year compared to the TCJA in 2017.
    • REMEMBER: by September 2018, the Republican National Committee’s own polling found 61 percent of voters said TCJA benefits “large corporations and rich Americans” over “middle class families”. Weeks later Republicans lost their majority.

• Placing criticism of the bill in the context of high prices, and declaring Americans will pay higher costs because of the bill has ranked as the top concern across research projects.
  • THE most persuasive messaging against reconciliation in a set of panel tests was on cost and affordability, 96% disapproved of Trump when the message focused on making groceries and health care more expensive.  [Blue Rose Research, 6/4/25] 

• THE most concerning impact of the bill in a June survey was that it will raise costs on 80 million lower-income and middle-class households. [Families Over Billionaires, CAP Action, Protect Our Care, 6/4/25]
  
• THE top testing reason to oppose the bill in the same survey was: “The American people are already struggling with high prices, and this bill, along with Trump’s tariffs, will make things even worse by stoking inflation, raising interest rates, and forcing people to pay more for healthcare, food, and utility bills.” [Families Over Billionaires, CAP Action, Protect Our Care, 6/4/25]
  
• Providing voters with context that the bill raises costs on everyday Americans in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy increases salience and persuasiveness.
  • While most voters support some provisions of the bill like temporary tax policies around tips, overtime pay, and the Child Tax Credit, strong majorities do not support the bill, even with those provisions included, when provided context about funding cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy that are also in the bill. [Data for Progress, 6/20/25]
  • When voters are provided with a list of provisions from the bill, the three most unpopular elements are that it cuts funding to Medicaid, cuts funding to SNAP, and provides tax cuts that will disproportionately go to the wealthy. [Families Over Billionaires, CAP Action, Protect Our Care, 6/4/25]